MVXC Opens the 2023 Season at the Lagoon Valley XC Classic

As you all know, I love racing! Loved racing myself, love watching, love coaching. And with a good meet, a good team and a good course…well, racing is special.

MVXC traveled to Vacaville for our season opener at the Lagoon Valley Classic. We started going to Lagoon Valley a few years ago, when Earlybird was smoked out and then permanently cancelled. Over the past few years, the course has grown on me. The setting is true California cross country–dry hills and dirt. There are two major hills–this is not a track meet masquerading as cross. Big Momma and Little Sister are legit climbs. Lagoon Valley is a course that will test a runner, and it suits the talents of a gritty team that trains on hills, like MVXC.

Our three freshman girls got their first taste of high school cross country, and they liked it! Miranda Hsu flew around the course in 13:53, which earned her a second place medal and also a second place on the MV all time list, between Avani Kalari and Sydney Stevens. Rita Bondar and Mira Ram had the presence of mind to smile at the camera–they clearly enjoyed their first high school XC race! Right after the girls, the frosh-soph boys launched. The FS boys took 13th as a team, with Kento Murase leading the group through the two mile course with a 13:51 that was five seconds faster than what Tanay ran when he was a freshman! (And wait until you read what Tanay did at Lagoon Valley this year…Tanay’s progress should give Kento something to aim for!) Simha Satoor and Aidan Cushman-Kihnley came in within seconds of each other, as did Cam Polidoro and Jonah Chang to complete the scoring for the boys. This is a very good first race for a nice group of freshman.

The varsity races are a full three mile championship distance. The MVXC varsity girls took 7th place, with Margaux Francouer and Anika Bhandarkar coming in back-to-back to earn medals. Margaux claimed the 5th best MVXC mark all time, while Anika is now ninth; both girls had big PRs to open the season. Katie Lee ran the three mile course for the first time and she was the third MVXC runner across the line, and Valerie Ayzenberg also recorded a PR while scoring for the varsity girls. Tanay Parikh made a big statement by grabbing a medal with a 16:42 mark on the three mile course; Tanay’s time was a 1:40 personal record AND broke Andrew Richardson’s (currently at Emory University) Monta Vista all-time course record. Always kick! One second might matter. First year runner cross country runner Ryan Liu continued to impress, running his first varsity race in 19:01, with sophomores Soham Beesetti and Rishi Salvi along with junior Ruhaan Shah completing the scoring. Monta Vista’s varsity team at Lagoon Valley was all juniors and sophomores–the team has a lot of upside to work towards.

Katie Li, Siran Gao, and Bradley Dulay all medaled for the JV girls and boys teams; Bradley’s mark is in the MVXC all-time top 10 on the two mile course. Aaron Hung received emotional accolades from his teammates for his effort and he made huge moves late in the race, many people applauded his efforts! The team welcomed New Mexico transfer Elina Jalili in her first race on California dirt!

Complete results are posted on XCStats.

Personal Records

We are not defined by how we compare to other people, we are defined by our own improvement and the effort we invest in making the most of our capabilities. Personal records are one way to measure how far we have traveled as runners. Eight personal records were set on the Lagoon Valley course this season:

Bradley Dulay PR by 4:21
Juliana Banes 2:25
Nick Pantino 1:40
Tanay Parikh 1:40
Margaux Francoeur 1:24
Anika Bhandarkar 57 seconds
Valerie Ayzenberg 48
Paru Joshi 25

Congratulations to everyone!

Some Reflections on Grit from Angela Duckworth

Dr. Duckworth sent this out in an email blast this morning…I always love it when she covers the basics of grit. This made me smile and so I am cutting and pasting and sharing her writing with you:

What is grit?

Grit is having passion and perseverance for long-term goals.

Why does grit matter?

Excellence sometimes seems like the result of natural talent. But no matter how gifted you are—no matter how easily you climb up the learning curve—you still need to do that climbing. There are no shortcuts. Grit predicts accomplishing challenging goals of personal significance. For example, grittier students are more likely to graduate from high school, and grittier cadets are more likely to complete their training at West Point. Notably, in most research studies, grit and measures of talent and IQ are unrelated, suggesting that talent puts no limit on the capacity for passion and perseverance.

How can I “take my pulse” on grit?

To gauge your current level of grit, consider how true the following are for you.

I enjoy projects that take years to complete.
I am working towards a very long-term goal.
What I do each day is connected to my deepest personal values.
There is at least one subject or activity that I never get bored of thinking about.
Setbacks don’t discourage me for long.
I am a hard worker.
I finish whatever I begin.
I never stop working to improve.

An Observation/Comment from Coach Flatow

First, thank you Angela Duckworth! Everything in the prior three paragraphs was word for word from the Character Lab email today (she does not mind when I plagiarize from her, but still!).

You are a gritty team. We have many gritty individuals on this team. This morning, sitting in the airport waiting to board for Philadelphia, I read a message from one of the athletes who wanted to talk about their race and their future plans. The athlete included their splits, shared some thoughts on where they might have pushed harder, made some observations about trying some different things during warm ups…this kind of thought and effort and analysis is the epitome of what Dr. Duckworth is talking about. That athlete is demonstrating passion and grit. Look back at Dr. Duckworth’s list above…years to complete, long term goals, never stop thinking about something, hard working, finish things, never stop working to improve. It’s like Dr. Duckworth is providing a checklist for a successful cross country team and a successful cross country runner, and the runner that sent that information to me is checking all the boxes.

And now look back at what Dr. Duckworth says about why grit matters. Dr. Duckworth’s research results tell us that talent puts no limit on the capacity for passion and perseverance. Dr. Duckworth has a lot of data showing that grit translates from one field to another, meaning that the grit you develop in cross country will benefit you in college and beyond as you find new passions to pursue.

Embrace your grit, develop your grit, love your grit and the grit in your teammates, grit will take you far!

A Grit Visual from Lagoon Valley

Coach Samantha took this photo from the top of Big Momma. Check out our runners, still working hard, never giving up, not listening to the little voice that says ‘it’s OK to walk, look at the person in front of you, they are walking, you can walk too and no one will care…’. When every MVXC runner in view is running and everyone else is walking, that says a lot about our team grit from top to bottom! I am so proud of our team, and of Irina and Juliana for giving a gritty effort. They had no idea that they were being watched and their photo would end up in mvrunning. Often grit reveals itself when no one is watching. (And a shout out to Mira for getting all the way back out to Big Momma to cheer for her teammates! Supporting your teammates is a part of the upward spiral of grit. I hear others were out there on Big Momma also, but Mira is in this photo, so…). I am SO PROUD.